The present invention is a shipping container having a liquid impervious bag contained within a corrugated box. The bag is equipped with a nozzle or spout providing access to the interior contents. A box member holds the spout at a predetermined location below a tearout portion of the top flaps of the container to prevent movement of the spout during handling and enable its ready access.
It has been common practice for many years to ship liquid materials contained within plastic bags enclosed in a rigid outer container. One might note U.S. Pat. No. 4,174,051 to Edwards et al. as an example. This patent shows a corrugated box containing a flexible plastic inner container with a pull-up spout for filling and dispersing the liquid contents. The inside flaps of the top of the container have cutout portions to allow the spout to be pulled up while one of the overlying outer flaps has a corresponding hole for the spout. The hole is covered by a removable press-in dust cap when the spout is not withdrawn. In one version of the invention the inner flaps have deflectable portions that serve to maintain the spout in upright position when withdrawn. However, when the spout is collapsed within the box for storage or shipping there is no means for maintaining it in registry with the cutout portions on the flaps.
Rutter, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,322,018, is primarily directed to a valve with means to pierce an otherwise imperforate bag at the time of use. The patent shows a liquid filled bag within a corrugated paperboard container having a keyhole-shaped portion that can be opened for access to the valve.
In containers of the general type described by Rutter, the valve is entirely enclosed within the container during shipping and storage. The user removes a perforated tear out section for access to the valve which is then removed and mounted on the side of the container. It is often a source of considerable frustration on the part of the consumer to even find the valve since it frequently has moved well away from its original position adjacent the tear out during shipping.
Winstead, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,042,271, shows a cubical plastic container with a spout that can be collapsed into the top of the container to present an uninterrupted upper surface. The container is formed of relatively heavy plastic material so that it can be handled without outside support when filled. Presumably, the container might be placed within a corrugated paperbord box for additional protection during shipping and/or storage.
Cox, Jr., in U.S. Pat. No. 3,100,587 shows a liquid container having a plastic bag within a container board box. The bag has a capped pouring tube affixed by a wire tie to a tab on cut on one of the inner upper flaps of the container. When the overlying outer flap is opened the tab with its affixed tube is exposed.
Containers having a bag within a box and permanently mounted exterior spouts have also been used for many years. Exemplary among these might be noted the following U.S. Patents: Parker, U.S. Pat. No. 2,973,119; McCullough et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,696,840; and Gordon et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,156,295.
More commonly, liquid materials in larger quantities are shipped within metal drums or in metal or plastic buckets of various sizes. Buckets are frequently of about 5 gallon (xcx9c20 L) capacity so that they can be readily handled. These buckets have removable heads covering the entire top. Among the materials so shipped are paints and other compositions that may contain a significant percentage of suspended solid materials. Using paints as an example, the buckets are palletized for shipping and at the point of use may be placed on a shaker to redisperse the pigment and/or other solid components. The action of the shaker is quite violent, as anybody who has observed a smaller shaker in a paint store can testify. Containers must be capable of withstanding severe forces. There are significant disadvantages to shipping palletized buckets. Foremost among these is the inefficient use of space on the pallet and the hazard of the outermost buckets inadvertently slipping off the edges. Depending on the particular bucket size and configuration on the pallet, as much as half of the pallet surface may be unutilized. Another disadvantage is that the upper surface of the buckets provides an unstable and irregular bearing surface for stacking additional pallets. One proposed solution to the above problems has been to ship the paint within a plastic bag contained in a corrugated paperboard shipping container. This has had only limited success for a number of reasons. The entire inner and outer container must be strong enough to withstand the action of the shaker. While this problem can be overcome by using adequately heavy containers and interior bags, there is another deficiency that is at best a nuisance and at worst a serious liability. The interior bags usually have a spout with a removable cap that is wholly contained within the outer container until the time of use. This spout must be readily available before placing the container on the shaker. Many times the material shipped is a tint base and various customized pigments are added at the point of use. It is highly undesirable to have to open the top flaps of the container for access to the spout. With these flaps unglued the container then loses much of the strength needed on the shaker and during subsequent handling; e.g. picking the container up to pour paint into a working container. Cartons may be designed with an opening for the spout, as in the aforenoted Edwards et al. patent, but these are effective only if the spout is always located exactly under the opening. During shipping, and especially during shaking, there is a strong tendency for the filled bags to rotate within the container so that an originally properly located spout is then nowhere to be found without tearing open the top flaps.
The present invention overcomes the deficiencies just noted and provides an effective bag-within-a-box container for liquids such as paints and similar materials.
The invention is the combination of a relatively lightweight liquid tight plastic bag, having a pouring spout and removable cap, contained within a corrugated paperboard shipping container. The shipping container has a means for maintaining the spout in a fixed position below an access area located in the upper surface. The outer portion of the container is in the usual form of a rectangular parallelepiped. It has side walls with upper and lower end portions closed by opposing pairs of inner and outer flaps. Most preferably there is an inner corrugated paperboard reinforcing insert portion snugly adjacent the sidewalls of the outer portion. This inner portion may have truncated corners so that it assumes an octagonal cross section to provide reinforcing corner posts. The plastic bag is placed in the thus formed shipping container with the spout upward and adjacent one edge. The spout may be a fixed or telescoping type and has a basal portion adjacent the body of the bag. A generally saddle shaped insert portion is placed over the spout. The insert has a depressed central area and wing-like side members. The central area has an opening that surrounds the base of the spout.
In one configuration, the wing-like members are fixed between the inner and outer flaps at the top of the container. The insert portion thus serves to hold the spout in a fixed position within the container during shipping and downstream handling. While the saddle may be formed of any suitable material, corrugated paperboard is preferred.
In a second arrangement, the insert portion is formed on a member having the general cross sectional configuration of the outer container. It is located under both sets of upper flaps and rests on the corner posts. In this configuration the member with the saddle is not glued or otherwise restrained other than being held within the inner periphery of the container.
A third arrangement uses a saddle that also is not glued to any portion of the outer container. This saddle may have fold-down tabs that anchor it into the corner posts formed by the reinforcing insert portion. It has outer fork-like portions that are bent back to embrace the spout.
One end of each inner top flap is cut away to allow access to the spout. A corresponding portion of one outer top flap overlying the cutouts is preferably perforated to form a tearout section and allow access to the spout at the point of use. With this configuration the top flaps need not be unglued so that the container maintains its maximum strength.
As noted above, the spout may be a telescoping type or it may be of fixed configuration. However, the spout and bag must be constructed so that the spout can be depressed below the top flaps when the container is sealed.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a shipping container for liquids and similar materials that resists the rigors of shipping and downstream handling.
It is a further object to provide a lightweight container having a spout for easy access to the contents, the spout being depressed within the container for shipping and storage but readily accessible for use.
It is another object to provide a bag-within-a-box type container having a spout that remains in fixed position with regard to the upper surface of the container even under conditions of extremely severe externally applied stresses.